[dallan]

You could pass some of that warmth over here please.....it's 11:00am and only 61 degrees, burrrr.  Where is our summer this year.

  On the bright side, if the LCD2s arrive i won't sweat in them i guess.

 

[Equus]

LOL, well it is something like 60 over here too until the afternoon...it just doesn't get much cooler than that, and my apartment probably stays in the upper 70's to 80's most of the time unless I turn on the a/c, which is unfortunately a little old and noisy.  Makes really appreciating my rig a little more challenging.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Does it really make a difference? I have never noticed anything between toslink and coaxial? Feels like we are splitting even more hairs here then regarding after market cables

There are many who claim to be able to hear deleterious effects from a Toslink in the path.  I, myself, have never made a study of that, but assuming jitter is not an issue, I can't imagine it would be audible.  Likewise, electrical "noise" in the digital domain would be ignored by the DAC, so should never become audible.  Further, if the DAC is properly grounded as it should be, any electrical noise coupled to it from an external source should be grounded out.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

My bad, the correct word is transducer.  English isn't is first language by the way.  In this case electricity is converted into light and back.  Much in the same way a speaker is a transducer of electricity into sound.

The most significant difference here is that the conversion in both directions takes place entirely in the digital domain, and therefore is theoretically lossless and undetectable, unless of course jitter is introduced.

 

[dallan]

I have three dacs that all have both optical and coaxial inputs and every one with every source and several different optical and digital cables all sound better with coaxial.  I don't know the reason, but it is quite obvious.  Maybe my dacs all just are better with the coax than optical.  I now only use optical when i have too, like listing to 24/81 which my usb converter doesn't like on my primary system.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

I have three dacs that all have both optical and coaxial inputs and every one with every source and several different optical and digital cables all sound better with coaxial.  I don't know the reason, but it is quite obvious.  Maybe my dacs all just are better with the coax than optical.  I now only use optical when i have too, like listing to 24/81 which my usb converter doesn't like on my primary system.

That's good input, thanks!  You are not the only person to report better sound from a coaxial (electrical digital) over a Toslink (optical digital) connection.  It would be fun to scope this out and see what was going on.  Oh well, another topic, another thread.  

 

 

[Solude]

Hence the advantage on a PC for toslink where electrical noise and other nasties are part of the deal.  Stereophile scoped all of this once upon a time on an RME card.  Long story short toslink dropped 400ps of electrical jitter off the measurement compared to coax but actual data jitter was more or less the same.
 
I'm also in the hard pressed to believe that things can sound different while still 1s and 0s.  But measurements are measurements so glass toslink for my PC.  Difference or not at least on paper I'm covered

 

[Hybrys]

So, I'm planning on dropping $2000 on an amp for these things, and I want to go balanced.  The WA22 should be quite proficient, but does anyone have any comments on how it sounds?

 

[Equus]

Sorry, haven't personally had a chance to listen to a WA22 with these 'phones.

 

[Solude]

If you had to pick a tube amp for the LCD-2 under $700 what would be your goto amp?  Semi sorta on topic whats the difference between the WA6 and WA6SE other than two box and some choke filters?

 

[Skylab]

I would go with the WA6 in that price range. I have found it excellent with the LCD-2. I'm not an expert on the SE differences though.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

If you had to pick a tube amp for the LCD-2 under $700 what would be your goto amp?  Semi sorta on topic whats the difference between the WA6 and WA6SE other than two box and some choke filters?

Literally, double the power!

 

[Servo]

I'm contemplating building either a balanced Beta22 or a balanced EHHA for use with the LCD-2s (when I get mine

).  Has anyone had the opportunity to try a balanced EHHA out?  I've read somewhere that the Beta does indeed sound swell  . . .

 

[grokit]

I've heard the LCD-2 single-ended briefly on the WA22, and it was just okay, I thought it was better out of the EF5 TBH. But it had a bad capacitor which may have been part of the problem, and will be back from Woo soon as it arrived with other issues. The WA22 seller took good care of me though, and Jack at Woo went through it thoroughly. The WA22 sounded GREAT balanced with the other headphones I tried though.
 
I haven't gotten the balanced cable yet for the LCD-2 but I really need to get on that as the WA22 should be back by the end of the week. I will either find my misplaced Warren Audio balanced Sennheiser cable that was messed up on the headphone end (refunded) and stick some mini XLRs on that, or put a male/female 4-pin XLR in line with the stock cable. I have a feeling that the LCD-2 will sound great balanced, and I will report back when I get it done.
 
On the toslink vs. coaxial: these are my only choices on my Bel Canto DAC2>EF5. When I was using the uDac for s/pdif conversion I heard a difference vs. toslink; I can't really say that one was better or worse than the other but there was an audible difference. Then I got a Bravo re-clocking converter hooked up, and couldn't tell the difference between that and toslink. I have since moved the Bravo to my balanced rig's Mini-i, where it makes a big difference. The Mini-i was upsampling redbook CD's to 48 kHz via USB; now it is bit-perfect @ 44.1 via BNC coaxial and sounds noticeably better.
 
I am happier with both rigs now, and I have my uDac back for use with the iPad. I also have a better toslink cable on order

And I'm done spending money on this hobby for quite a while. Really

.

 

[Solude]

Unless something has changed Monster uses pretty smoky plastic for its toslink.  Its actually the cable they used to sing the praises of glass.  At the time the glass was an AudioGon private seller thing, $25 or there abouts and just destroying everything in its path.  Then WireWorld and Nordost jumped on board.  There was another one too, white, european, name escapes me.